This story is from February 17, 2019

‘We have lost 70% of our heritage’

‘We have lost 70% of our heritage’
Some go in search of silence, only to find that the pin drops even in pin-drop silence. Some run from away it, spooked by its eeriness. But some walk right into silence that waits for them in unexpected nooks and corners. And then there’s Amardeep Singh, who not only walked into it – when he went tracing the remnants of the Sikh heritage in the remote corners of Pakistan nearly five years ago – but listened to its awe-inspiring stories and recorded it for posterity.

Thus were born two humongous books that recount the value system that our forefathers were trying to impart to us through art – Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan and The Quest Continues Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan. That it took him a mere three-and-half years to put them together is a wonder, but he is happy to pass the credit on to the divine – the unknown force that fuelled his maniacal urge to complete what he started. “Everything fell into place. A beautiful energy guided me in Pakistan to people and places that were waiting to be told. One book led to another. When you believe in something, everything comes together in a way we cannot logically explain.”
When he began the journey way back in 2014, Amardeep says he was going through existential crisis: he had just lost his cushy corporate job in Singapore. After mulling over life for six months, he decided he might find his answers in the village of his father – Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Post partition, his parents had moved to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, where Amardeep was born.
His was a personal journey to trace his roots. Once there in Pakistan though, he willingly let himself loose among the ruins and remnants of his collective heritage. He picked his way through gurdwaras, havelis and forts that were whitewashed off its past, were put to different uses and were crumbling apart. He saw monuments, some not built by the Sikhs, reflect the glory of his faith, the essence of the Guru Granth, still standing, even if barely so. He came back home 30 days later a changed man.
What he saw in those 30 days – and, later, another 40 days for his book number 2 – convinced him that legacy is not religion. That faith and culture are two sides of the same coin. “They cannot be separated. Faith emerges from culture that churn a particular land.”
More than anything else, what amazed Amardeep is the pluralistic mindset of our forefathers. “The more frescoes I saw, the more clear it was: It was Punjabiyat that they were reflecting – a composite of culture and stories from the land of Punjab, whether it is Heer Ranjha or Soni Mahiwal, or even Ranjit Singh himself. What they were trying to represent was what Punjab was.”

He readily agrees that lack of trust between the nations has created a situation in which people don’t have free access to the beautiful legacy left behind in Pakistan. But he also points out that his community has to rise above the biases of the history to understand it, connect the dots and see the bigger picture. “The fifth guru, Arjan Dev, had invited a saint from Lahore, Sain Mian Mir, to lay the foundation stone of the Golden Temple. It shows us, how different faiths in those days celebrated each other. But how many of the Sikhs who go to Lahore today go to Sain Mian Mir’s place? Why do we have to restrict ourselves to Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib?”
The “noise”, as he terms, around reviving gurdwaras in Pakistan has only made him more cautious. “Pakistan government has moved a lot from the time when only Nankana Sahib was operational — today there are 24 historical gurdwaras renovated. But the problem is, people don’t understand what heritage maintenance is. Today, Sikh people are coming with pot loads of money to restore them. Wakf board is giving them contracts, the intent is clear: help yourself. I will always say that the Sikh community lost their heritage in Pakistan, but they destroyed everything in India. Monuments like these don’t exist in India, where everything is plastered, whitened and glittered. There is nothing of the past left.”
The solution lies in discretion, he says. “Pakistan should not give the contracts unless it got the rules of engagement in place. It should not let heritage buildings be converted into marble and gold. Partner with organisations like Aga Khan if you must. Because, it is not about faith now. It is heritage restoration. These organisations have proven themselves. Our forefathers took pains to tell the beautiful story of syncretism. Can we restore it in the original way, is the question that needs to be answered today, because these are the last remains of Sikh heritage left anywhere in the world. And we have lost 70% of our heritage already.”
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